Priorities
by Lisa Telramor
Summary: When Shinichi returns to his body, there are a few things he has to do, and some things are a bit more important than others. Ran/Shinichi


_AN: written for the prompt: Detective Conan, Shinichi, the first five things he does after getting his proper body back. Not quite a five things response..._

* * *

The first thing Shinichi does once he gets his body back is sleep. It isn't on his list, and really he hadn't planned on sleeping the second he got his body back, but aging ten years in a few minutes (and staying!) took a lot more out of him than he was expecting. At least Ai got her blood work done while he was sleeping.

When he wakes up (four hours and sixteen minutes later, look time wasted) he does the first logical thing on his list. He checks the mirror.

In his previous (short) returns to his true form Shinichi could always see the strain of the process in his face, a heaviness in his limbs even if only he saw it, and panic in his eyes counting down for when he'd turn back into Conan. He still sees that panic, the look of waiting for the other shoe to drop or for Haibara to barge into the room and tell him with a bland expression that it wasn't a cure after all; that this time it just let him be him a bit longer than the previous antidotes. He has circles under his eyes, he can count every rib left visible by his open button down shirt, his wrists jut out more than he remembers them doing, and all around he looks like someone who has been on the run without the right supplies for a bit too long. It fits his mental state. He guesses that to hold himself in this form for good, it took more nutrients from him than normal. He looks (and feels) like he needs several large meals and good nights of sleep. He can do it later because other things come first (provided Haibara doesn't catch him and _make_ him eat.)

He looks older than he remembers, but he should look older at twenty than he did at seventeen, right?  
Shinichi slips out the back door and heads to his home. It takes fifteen minutes to shower, dig out his old clothes (which are starting to get a bit musty) and dress in something that doesn't make him look like a victim of starvation. The shoe hasn't dropped yet and he's starting to let himself hope that this is for real. The next logical step is to find Ran.

* * *

She isn't home.

He sits outside the Mouri Detective Agency and can't remember if she said she was going out or not. It isn't what he planned to do when he turned back, waiting. In his head it went more along the lines of: determine it's permanent, find Ran, confess to Ran and ask her to date you, kiss Ran, hopefully don't get decked, explain the last three years before she starts giving death threats, don't run off even if she looks like she wants to hurt you, hopefully end up dating Ran. Ok, perhaps she might prefer things in a different order, but he figures he's had life interrupt him one too many times (some of those interruptions made by himself because he chickened out) that he owes them both that confession first. And maybe if he confesses first she'd be less inclined to kick him through a wall for lying to her for three years and living with her as Conan. He thinks she'd forgive him. He'd really rather kiss her before she gets angry though because three years of mental frustration and reaching the awkward start of puberty all over again is enough to make anyone desperate.

Ten minutes into waiting he remembers he has a cell phone and he doesn't have to be careful about using it.

_"Moshi moshi?" _

"Ran?" He feels relieved just hearing her voice. It chases away the last of the doubt for some reason. Everything feels more solid with Ran around. "Where are you right now?"

He wishes she didn't sound so surprised. He wishes he had called her more often. He wishes he never chased down the two suspicious figures in black three years ago even if he did help the FBI take down one of the widest spread criminal organizations on record. _"I'm at the park. There's a fair today and…" _The park? He doesn't remember her mentioning a fair, but he can get there fast. She's still talking, but his mind is plotting the fastest course to where she is.

"Ran, can you wait near the pond?"

"I'm back," he says, and he feels warm and happy and lighter than when he's just solved a case. "And I'm staying." He hears her intake of breath. His cheeks hurt from smiling. "I'll be there in a bit."

* * *

As he runs to the subway to catch the nearest stop to the park, his subconscious fills him in on what she had been saying. The park, with Sonoko, to see the fair's martial arts tournament, to maybe participate. The Shounen Tantei had mentioned it—Ayumi asked him to go—he'd forgotten all of it when Haibara called. He isn't going to be alone with her when he gets there. He's going to have an audience and that's going to be harder because he can't just ask her to step outside away from her father like at the detective agency. He can get over his shyness just this once.

She's standing under a streamer-wrapped light pole laughing at something Sonoko said. She's wearing the shirt he saw her buy two weeks ago and her favorite worn pair of blue jeans. When she sees him, her cheeks go pink and she smiles. He nearly trips over a baby stroller crossing the last twenty feet. He can't look away.

"Hey," he says. He's taller than he remembers, but only standing next to her can he tell. He could set his chin on her head with no effort at all. It leaves his stomach doing weird fluttery-twisting feelings.

"Hi." She can't look him in the eye.

Sonoko rolls her eyes and pushes Ran forward. "I'm going to look at vendors booths again. Text me if you need me." She's gone before they can do more than blink.

Being alone makes him feel more tongue tied than when Sonoko was there.

"Shinichi?" Ran frowns and touches his face and he almost panics. "Have you been sick?"

"Ah. No. Um." He has a list, stick to the list. "I'll explain in a bit." He takes her hand and she looks at his hand holding hers like she can't quite understand what he's doing. "Ran." Crap. Words. What happened to the words he carefully planned? "Ran would you marry me?" Shit. "Shit wait, no that wasn't what I was trying to say. I mean."

Ran laughs and he looks at her with his face burning and she is blushing and crying and laughing all at the same time.

"I love you," he says, because he's wanted to say it for a long time and he can't do anything more embarrassing than blurting out a marriage proposal at this point. (Well, he could but he won't.) "And I'm sorry for making you cry" _so many times_ "and disappearing and…all of that." He takes a breath and leans closer. "I've wanted to kiss you since the second year of middle school but I didn't because I was too stubborn to ask."

Ran wipes some of the tears away, smiling. "Well you can kiss me now."  
He does. It's everything like he imagined, warm and soft and chaste like he feels it should be for their first proper kiss. He pulls back and Ran leans her head on his chest.

"And yes."

"Hm?" He touches her hair. He almost can't believe he can.

"Yes. To the rest of that. I love you too." He feels like the time he jumped off a building chasing Kid. It's a rush of adrenaline and focus and the unforgettable feeling of free fall. She looks up and her expression is serious. "But you have a lot of explaining to do."


End file.
